Many women and men are left with very little after a divorce, so I can understand the outrage some might have when they read that the ex-wife of an energy tycoon plans to appeal a court ruling that awarded her nearly $1 billion in a divorce settlement.
An Oklahoma County judge awarded $995.4 million in cash and assets to Sue Ann Hamm, who was married for 26 years to Continental Resources chief executive Harold Hamm before she filed for divorce in 2012.
Harold Hamm called the judgment “fair and equitable.”
Ron Barber, an attorney representing Sue Ann Hamm, told Jay F. Marks at the Oklahoman newspaper that his client plans to appeal the settlement, arguing that it represents less than 6 percent of the couple’s estimated $18 billion net worth.
Divorce lawyers said they were surprised by how small the award was.
“I would have expected that a larger percentage of the wealth be attributed to marital skill and labor,” Carolyn Thompson, an Oklahoma family law expert, told Reuters’s Joshua Schneyer. “Instead, the judge is ruling that the vast majority of the increase was attributable to market factors outside of Harold Hamm’s control.”
As Schneyer reports, under the law in Oklahoma, the growth of assets is typically equally divided if the appreciation is deemed the result of the efforts or skills of either spouse during the marriage. Harold Hamm’s lawyers argued that most of growth in the value of Continental stock was the result of factors beyond his control, such as rising oil prices.
I know the numbers are big, but the argument that Harold Hamm had little to do with the increase in the couple’s household net worth and thus shouldn’t have to share more with his former wife is unfair. If people think Sue Ann Hamm should be satisfied with $1 billion, why isn’t the reverse true? Why shouldn’t the ex-husband be able to live on half of the $18 billion the stock is worth?
But let’s put this all in perspective, shall we?
“Unfortunately, for most people, separating from a spouse likely means a leaner financial life,” Teresa Tritch wrote in a blog post for the New York Times
Credit: Washington Post
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